Retire timeline

Brendan Burgess said:

You have €900k worth of assets and a gold plated civil service pension.

There is no need for you to economise so long as you put the non-home assets to productive use.






This makes no sense. I full appreciate that you don't want the hassle of renting. I understand that you might not want to invest directly in shares.

But you have €500k earning you nothing - in fact, it's costing you.

Sell the buy to not let and invest all your money in a 100% equity ETF.
And if that is too much hassle, then buy an ordinary unit-linked fund.
It might be inefficient from a tax point of view, but getting 60% of a decent return is better than getting 100% of 0%.

Brendan

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@Brendan Burgess You've addressed the key concern here. @Premos And the lump sum on retirement will likely bring €130k or so. The ETF deemed disposal condition is what puts me off so maybe unit-linked is better though I've been burned before on such funds, even when across multiple investment sectors. My spouse (being disabled) may be exempt from DIRT but that's only deposit accounts? But I fully recognise the loss associated with the current plan.
@Premos One thought we had was to sell the PPR (no tax arising) and extend the BTL to allow one of the children share with us - it's likely my spouse's disability will worsen and so some assistance would be welcome if all were in agreement. That would also help with that adult-child's search for accommodation. That was part of why I retained assets in cash to allow for that possible work - but retirement may be a few years away yet. I'm not concerned with economising, just when I could reasonably consider retiring.

aurelius42 said:

so maybe unit-linked is better though I've been burned before on such funds, even when across multiple investment sectors.

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Can you just explain what happened here in the context of when it was, how long you were invested, what funds you were invested in (and why), were fund switches made and an indication of costs?

I think it might be helpful to others reading this.

@aurelius42

Don't not do the right thing just because it's tax inefficient.

The best way for you to manage your finances is for your wife to buy high dividend shares in her own name. But you don't want the "hassle" of that.
So buy an ETF or a fund. As I have said 60% of the stockmarket return is better than 0%.

aurelius42 said:

That was part of why I retained assets in cash to allow for that possible work

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That is no excuse for staying in cash. You should still be invested in the stockmarket and get out when you are about to start your building.

You absolutely do not need to do any economising.

Brendan

KOW said:

Both myself and wife retired last couple of years. Again no debt for last 15 yrs. We have been doing the travelling bit etc. That said I certainly think for several years we will spending more than we earned while working. Even been conservative and going steady the days of say living on 60% of your pre retirement income are gone.

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@KOW That's what I would possibly expect too as long as health allows. It isn't a linear draw-down but front-loaded when the appetite and health is there.
@GSheehy It would be mid-90s when I invested ~£6k in fund tracking Euro top 50 stocks and think it hasn't yet recovered in value. Perhaps an anomaly (Quinn Life I think) but colored my view since then, but didn't have funds until lately to invest in any case.

arbitron said:

That's €3,750 a month. With no mortgage and no school-age children that's higher than I would expect. Are the extra expenses from helping out your children and healthcare costs for your spouse?

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That's a little more than my expenditure for 2 adults, 2 children of school going age and a mortgage.

@aurelius42

The ILAC fund pricing doesn't allow me to go back that far but I did find a value on a €5,078.95 investment in October '99 in CelticScope that's currently worth (after taxes) €7,398. AMC would have been 1.5% pa

The EuroScope would have fared better, I think, so I doubt it's still underwater. You should still be getting valuation statements once or twice a year.

Annualised performance of a mixed fund over the 1999 to 2023 (Pre 2001 Net of Taxes Fund) would be circa 3% pa if the AMC was the same as above.